Many of us have the habit of automatically saying yes to whenever we receive a request on our time and talent. It is as if we are on autopilot. Every time someone ask us to do something or go somewhere we automatically say yes. When we have the Yes Habit we don't stop long enough to evaluate at what expense our yes is going to cost us.
In all actuality, the Yes Habit can be a very expensive habit. If we take a thorough inventory, we may find that continuing the Yes habit may cause us to operate our lives at a deficit. Some of the cost of having the Yes Habit are:
Relationships. When we continuously feed our Yes Habit we run the risk of jeopardizing our relationships. These can be relationships with our family, friends, co-workers, etc. When we have the Yes Habit we tend to overextend ourselves. We also tend to underestimate the amount of time or energy it will take for us to complete the task. This can put a strain on our relationships. Our relationships may become strained because we are not using our time to invest and cultivate the relationships that having meaning to us. Instead, we are using this precious time to do things that are important to others, and not necessarily ourselves.
Health. The Yes Habit can eventually be detrimental to our health and well-being. The Yes Habit is a timely habit. Those who have this habit rush from commitment to commitment with little time left to devote to taking care of themselves. This often manifests itself when meals are skipped, there isn't time to exercise and a good night's sleep is something dreams are made of. The Yes Habit can also make show up in the form of anxiety, depression or adrenal fatigue. Good health and well-being is an expensive causality of the Yes Habit.
Living in Our Purpose. We all are given 24 hours each day. Having the Yes Habit can cost us precious time that we can devote to living in our purpose. Saying yes to everyone else can leave us little time to devote to living a life that is truly meaningful to us. Our lives become meaningful to everyone else because we are assisting them in furthering their own agenda. The Yes Habit robs us of the time we can use to develop ourselves. It can also prevent us from taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves to us.
These are only a few ways in which we pay a hefty price for having the Yes Habit. I challenge you to do some self reflection to identify the other ways you are paying for your Yes Habit. Remember, as with other habits you can break the Yes Habit.
